


a lover who will cover me

by angstandcaffeine



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, no descriptions of violence but some appears off screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 05:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17574959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstandcaffeine/pseuds/angstandcaffeine
Summary: A Golden Lance case.(or in the words of the prompt, "they just have a nice time and are old lesbians who are also vampire vigilantes")





	a lover who will cover me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wannabequeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wannabequeen/gifts).



Victoria awoke to the sounds of a spoon clinking a glass and papers rustling. She looked up from the bed at the inn to see Gloria awake, already having made morning tea and pouring over notes. With maps, fliers, tips from local officials, and Gloria’s own notes strewn over the table, an outsider might think that she was lost in the papers, but at this point, Victoria was familiar with Gloria’s process. She was the doctor, after all, as Gloria liked to point out.

Victoria rolled back over. Given the state of Gloria’s hair and her complete lack of awareness that she had woken up, Gloria would need at least another twenty minutes before making a breakthrough that would require Victoria to be awake.

“Good morning,” Gloria called, not looking up from the small table in the corner of the room. “There’s more tea for you.”

A miscalculation, apparently. Victoria made a noise, but did not get up from the bed.

“Oh come on,” Gloria teased, balling up a bit of scrap paper and throwing it at her. It bounced off her shoulder and onto the floor. “You’re being a terrible stereotype right now. Come out, the sun won’t hurt you.”

Victoria peeked back at her wife. “Do you have something?”

“Of course I have something,” she said. “I always have  _ something _ .” 

Victoria made her way over to the cup of tea prepared for her. “Do you have something useful? Do you have a lead?” She kissed the top of her head, a thank you for the tea and the work and everything. She sat down beside her.

“I have something.” She smoothed out the paper in front of her. “This would be easier if they would let us deputize literally anyone, but here we are.”

“We’ll manage.”

***

They spent the day weaving up and down streets, in and out of shops. Each person they talked to seemed to have no more than a sliver of information and a strong desire to send them elsewhere.

There was one place left on Gloria’s list of locations of probable interest: the social hall where the victim had worked. As the afternoon sun began to dip into evening’s territory, Victoria and Gloria climbed the stairs to the building. It looked newer than anything else in town.

As they approached the wooden double doors, they could hear the light-hearted music being played behind them. And sure enough, when they opened the door, a dance was revealed. Attendants leaned against the bar, or chatted at one of the tables scattered across the room, or danced in the center to the quartet playing on stage. 

Victoria could feel the puppy-dog grin on Gloria’s face before she even looked over to confirm it was there. “No.”

“The dance floor will give us a very important vantage point, and you know it.”

A host at the social hall approached them, cutting off the conversation. Victoria wasted no time in her introduction, allowing the glint of gold at her side to be persuasive for her. Quickly and quietly, they were escorted to the manager’s office on the hall’s second floor.

Victoria clocked Xavier Aloft’s too-wide grin, ornate desk, and completely bare workspace. She immediately distrusted him. She glanced over at Gloria’s notes. She had put an upwards arrow next to his name- meaning he had risen towards the top of Gloria’s suspect list as well.

“Ah,” Xavier said, “the Golden Lance has finally arrived.” He stood up from the desk to shake their hands. “What can I do for you?”

The following conversation was somewhere between a dance and a duel. Victoria shrouded basic questions in compliments and lies to try to trick the manager into tipping his hand. He certainly had experience in avoiding questions, but the bits of information she could gather only made her more suspicious.

“Well, it is late, and I’m afraid we must say good night,” he said, weaseling his way out of her final question as best he could. That was fine. A refusal to say an answer was just another kind of answer. “And I’m sure you two must be tired, what with the long travels just to get to our neck of the woods.”

“On the contrary,” Victoria spoke, catching Gloria’s eye, “I don’t think we’ll be heading out quite yet.”

“Oh?” He spoke the word like a question, but meant it as a challenge. “Well, I’m going home for the night, so our business here must end.”

“Oh, of course.” Victoria reached for Gloria’s hand. “And our business ends too. But it’s been such a long time since we had a night to ourselves- I think we’ll stay and enjoy some drinks and dancing.”

“Ah, wonderful.” His eyes were daggers. “Well, enjoy your night.”

Gloria slotted into Victoria’s side as they headed out, hand around her waist. “And I thought you said we didn’t have time for dancing,” she whispered.

“We didn’t before.”

“You’re allowed to change your mind, you know.” They stepped onto the dance floor, Gloria taking the lead. It was good dancing music - upbeat enough to be fun, but slow enough that she could still wrap her arm around Victoria and have her close.

“Oh, hush.”

“You know you have ways of making me do that.” She grinned.

Victoria couldn’t help but flush a bit. “There is a time and place, Gloria.”

Gloria pulled her in just a hair tighter as they turned, hand on the small of her back. “We have many, many places and more time than I know what to do with.”

“I know,” Victoria said, with a genuine grin on her face. And then Gloria was spinning her, and she didn’t know what else to say.

“I love you too,” Gloria teased once they were back face to face, lips brushing her ear. After all these years, it still made her heart race. “Now, squeeze my hand when you can see the bar or the backroom.”

“I’ll let you know,” she breathed. “But we’ve already covered quite a bit of ground -- we may have to stay for a second song.”

Gloria smirked. “Victoria, if you want to lead, you can just ask.”

***

After a few rounds of dancing, Gloria had asked to sit down. They sat in silence, each turning the facts of the case over in their minds. Victoria grabbed Gloria’s hand, rubbing it absentmindedly as she sat.

Without any explanation, Gloria broke the silence. “Do you want to flirt with the bartender, or do you want to be the one that sneaks in?”

Victoria blinked in confusion. “I’m sorry, come again?”

“We need to search behind the bar.”

“Yes, and we’ve got these handy little badges that mean we can just search the bar.”

Gloria’s eyes flicked over to the host that had shown them upstairs earlier. They were still standing in the stairwell, watching over the gathering, as if they were guarding the second floor. “Xavier is still here. And if we become sure that he did it, I would like to catch him before he runs.”

“Fair enough.” 

Victoria had always been the louder of the two of them, and so she was chosen to serve as the distraction. To be clear, Victoria and Gloria had not planned on spending their evening at a social hall when they had gotten dressed that morning. But despite that, Victoria didn’t look a bit out of place. She had removed her signature hat and clutched her billowing coat around her waist. Her posture commanded your attention exactly where she wanted it: to her face, where her dark eyes drew you in close. The hypnotic gaze of Victoria Solomon was something she was very familiar with.

From her spot in the corner of the room, Gloria could see her laying it on thick- leaning over the bar, a giggle ringing through the air. Gloria rolled her eyes. Maybe she was having too much fun with this.

At the right moment, when a flurry of new arrivals distracted the hosts on the floor, Gloria slipped into the service door as quietly as she could. She blinked in the darkness, and after a moment identified her surroundings as the break room. 

A calendar of employee schedules revealed that the victim hadn’t been given any shifts past the date of his death. That was promising. Gloria pocketed it, and slinked further into the room.

The roof of the room slanted sharply. As Gloria ducked and moved towards the far end, she realized she must have been under the stairs. Above her, she could hear voices. She couldn’t tell who was speaking, but she could hear the orders being given: “Watch them.”

Ominous, to be sure, and another point in the Xavier Aloft category.

Thuds above her told her the stairway meeting was over. She tucked between a shelf and the wall, waiting for the folks upstairs to leave.

Instead, the door behind her opened.  _ Fuck.  _ A lantern illuminated the room. “Ms. Lake?” The host who had shown them upstairs before called out. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.”

She sighed, turning around. “I am a member of the Golden Lance,” she said, bearing her badge. “I may go where I please. And it’s Doctor Lake, thank you.”

The door she had expected people to come out of now opened too. She was surrounded. 

“Ah, you’ve found Ms. Lake.” Xavier’s voice boomed from behind her. She rolled her eyes. “Good. Go grab Ms. Solomon, would you?” He dismissed the host.

Gloria spun around, pointing at him. “By the authority of the Golden Lance, I command you to stand down and accept judgement for your actions.”

“I believe that the Golden Lance deserves a little less authority.” He grabbed a bottle off the desk and raised it above her head. She dodged it deftly, swinging around to knock him off balance. 

She readied her stance. “Well, this isn’t how I was expecting date night to go.”

***

Victoria’s attention was divided, as much as she tried to hide that fact. She needed to keep tabs on the bartender, plus the other hosts in the room, plus Gloria. 

Of course, as soon as she thought about consolidating her attention, the importance of splitting it emerged. Gloria was surprised, in a bad way. Victoria pushed, examining the emotions of her surroundings. Sure enough, Gloria’s surprise was quickly turning to the focused anger of a fight. They didn’t get into fights all that often - they usually didn’t have to - but the feeling was unmistakable.

“So how long are you in town for?” The bartender asked. She smiled sweetly as she spoke.

“Not much longer, I don’t think,” Victoria replied. “Excuse me, do you mind if I climb up here?” She stood on the bar counter, not leaving her enough time to respond. She stood tall, stamping her foot down on the marble counter. “Patrons and staff of the Amberline Social Hall.” Her voice boomed. The room stilled, musicians quieting their instruments. “I am Victoria Solomon of the Golden Lance. All of you must evacuate, immediately.”

At that moment, Gloria’s scuffle busted through the door, adding impetus to her order. The hall erupted in chaos as folks scrambled to leave.

Victoria jumped down from the bar. “Thanks, darling,” she called over her shoulder, shooting the bartender a wink. Then she walked, calmly and with purpose, to help her wife and deliver justice.

***

BANG. BANG BANG.

“For fucks sake, get down.” Gloria reached a hand up and yanked on her wife’s coat. She pulled her under the table she had tipped over to use as cover. “They’re not worth it, and Aloft’s going to get away.”

“So what do we do?” Victoria popped back up to take a shot at the closest of the archers Aloft had summoned, then crouched back down.

“If we can make it out the door, we can knock out the horse he’s riding easy.”

She gestured toward the archers pinning them down. “If we can make it out the door.” 

“Well, sure.” Gloria pointed to the chandelier on the ceiling. “I think that’ll give us enough cover.”

Victoria frowned. “Are you seriously using this case as a chance to check off your bucket list right now?”

Gloria grinned. “It’ll totally work.”

Victoria rolled her eyes, and Gloria leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. Before she could pull away, Victoria caught her face in her hand.

“Hey.” Her gaze never wavered. “You break it, and we run, okay?”

“Okay.”

Victoria leaned in quickly, a small kiss to her lips, sealing the promise. “On my count.” Gloria nodded. “One, two, three.”

With an explosive blast from Gloria’s gun, the chandelier broke from its hold on the ceiling, swinging into the room. A second shot, and it burst into hundreds of pieces, glass cascading into the ballroom turned battlefield. A small grin tugged up the corner of Gloria’s mouth. It was the beautiful chaos she had always hoped it would be.

“Running,” her wife reminded her. They bolted for the door.

***

Far away from the town now, Victoria watched Gloria tend to the campfire. Her dark eyes glinted as the flames reflected off them.

Justice had been served. The Golden Lance would move on, as it always would, and the town they left behind would sew up the holes wrongdoing had left in their community, as it always would.

It was a cause Victoria had always been happy to serve, but she had certainly become happier to do it once Gloria had become involved. Her careful hands fed the fire now, giving them heat and light.

Gloria glanced over and noticed Victoria watching her. “Hey,” she said, voice soft, “come here.” She gestured for Victoria to sit on the blanket next to her.

Victoria moved over, laying down with her head in Gloria’s lap. She stared up and gazed at the stars. They were beautiful things, hung in the sky, flickering forever, as if they had something to say. Gloria carded her fingers through her hair. Victoria hummed, content, and closed her eyes. 

In a while, Gloria would force her to get up and move inside the tent so they could both go to sleep. But for now, she could lay here, cool earth below her, warm fire above her.

And Gloria all around her.

**Author's Note:**

> this was so much fun to write!! thank you for the awesome prompts!!!
> 
> the title is from "cover me" by bruce springsteen


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